Project Twenty Four: Making My Own Circular Stool Cushions

We have three Ikea stools that we use around the workstation, but they are not the most comfortable things for sitting on for extended periods of time. We’ve been improvising and using cushions from the sofa, but they are always slipping off from under our bums so not the most practical of solutions.

I’ve been planning on making some circular stool cushions and cushion covers for a while now, and this weekend I started the ball rolling by making the actual cushions and inner cushion covers, and planning how I was going to make the final cushion covers (what fabric to use, where to put the zipper, whether or not to use piping, what fasteners to use to keep the cushions attached to the stools, so many things to consider…)

How I made my circular cushions:

1. I bought 1 metre of the thickest wadding available in John Lewis. It cost me £5.75. I doubled this over so the cushions were twice as thick.

2. I found an old white cotton sheet in the linen chest that had a big rip in it and was therefore no longer required as a sheet.

3. I made a template of the top of the stool out of newspaper.

4. I cut six circles out of the wadding using my stool template. This would be enough for three cushions.

5. I cut six circles out of the cotton sheet using my template

6. I cut three strips of fabric from the cotton sheet measuring 2″ by 42″ for the sides fo the cushions

7. I sewed one circle of fabric to one length of the strip of fabric, and then sewed another circle of fabric to the other length of the strip, leaving a 6″ gap for turning

8. Once both circles were sewn to the strip I had my first white cotton inner cushion cover. I turned it right side out and put two of the wadding circles inside through the gap.

9. Once the wadding was in place and smooth I topstitched the gap closed and admired my very own circular stool cushion ready to be covered.